Nice People, Nice Things

May 19, 2008

I've finally finished another of my Nice People Nice Things blocks. This one is called Music.

I'm sorry that the photo is a bit blurred but Flossie was hiding under the quilt I had it sitting on, so every now and then it moved around!

I stitched 'music' in green thread and the lines in blue and the notes in gold with red hearts. I'm not sure that I really like the colour combination but my thinking at the time was to try to use all the threads I had initially selected in the blocks and then in the whole quilt it will just all look good together. I hadn't used green for wording yet so I thought it would be good here.

This is the back of the block:

Again, I stitched the words in green and added red hearts.

I lay all of my completed blocks together and they are starting to look really nice. I think the quilt will be special when it's finished. I'm still debating what size to make it. My thinking at the moment is a lap size quilt which means I won't need the total blocks. With that in mind, I think I will be selective about which blocks to stitch in future. There are so many lovely ones to choose from but some will be more appropriate to me than others.

I've already ironed on the next lot of stitcheries. I'm really glad I chose the iron-on transfers because it just makes it so quick.

At the start of the year I optimistically stated that I could finish this quilt this year - well now I'm not so sure! Still I know I will be happy with it whenever I finish it.

March 27, 2008

This is the front and the back says "If you can trust no one else, you can always trust bear."

I stitched the words in blue this time and I added a mustard border simply because I wanted to introduce some mustard colour into the quilt.

Broken needle...

I really had a false start with this block because when I was putting it together on Monday afternoon (public holiday), the sewing machine needle broke. Now I haven't broken a needle in such a long time, and when I went to replace it I noticed I only had one left in the packet so I made a mental note to buy some more this week. I started sewing when ten minutes later, I broke another needle - my last needle. Can you believe that? The most frustrating thing was that I knew the shop was closed at the time and because of my busy week, I wouldn't get a chance to actually go to the shop until today (Thursday). And then, when I did go there this morning they were sold out of the size I wanted! By that stage I was really frustrated and working out in my mind how long it would take me to drive to the 'other' shop when I was walking past one of those shops that does alterations when I noticed they had a Birch Haberdashery stand and lo and behold they had some needles. I was so excited I had to restrain myself from hugging the lady in the shop.

Yo-yos...

I've added another blog to my blog list - Knotgarden. Go and visit and see a lovely yo-yo project as well as some beautiful knitting.

March 08, 2008

I've finished yet another block of my Nice People Nice Things quilt - one of the applique hearts blocks. There are 9 of these blocks altogether and it was quick to make up.

The front says 'nice people' and the back says 'love me' -

Each side of the block has a small sttichery heart which is appliqued onto the bigger (red) heart and then this is appliqued onto the fabric background. I used blanket stitch applique because it fitted in with the country colours I'm using. I had one minor problem with the vliesofix. I had put the iron-on pellon onto the back of the stitchery heart and stitched that first before appliqueing it to the bigger heart. The problem was, the vliesofix wouldn't stick to the pellon so I had to pin the small heart to the bigger heart to applique it.

I thought next time I might leave out the pellon and vliesofix the small heart to the big heart before I stitched it but then when I looked at the finished hearts the pellon gives it a big of dimension so maybe I'll do the same next time. Have to think about it.

Nana's Garden...

I decided to do another couple of stitcheries for the quilt. I made this one but Robin had trouble working out what it was. It's supposed to be a quilt on a clothesline in the garden - do you think it looks like that?

Curtain making...

Last year I made some curtains for Aaron's living room. I hadn't made curtains for such a long time but they turned out really well. In fact they turned out so well that he wants me to make some for the bedrooms in his apartment now. So that's what I'm doing this weekend. He's gone away for a few days so I'm going to try to do them while he's gone.

February 28, 2008

I've finished another block of my Nice People Nice Things quilt. This one is Miracles. I stitched the words in mauve (3041) and bordered it with a purple fabric to bring out the colour. Here's the front -

and the back -

The words say - "angels are miracles sent from above to provide us with friendship laughter and love".

Early start..

I woke up earlier than usual this morning and instead of just laying in bed I decided to get up and do something. So I headed for my sewing room to finish the 'miracles' block. After sewing on the borders, I realised that they were on the wrong way so I had to unpick and start again. It was at this point that I decided that for me sewing at 5.00am was not a good thing and headed for the ironing board instead. I managed to get the ironing done and the washing from yesterday folded and put away - all before breakfast.

February 12, 2008

The words are stitched in 926 (blue) and the flowers are different colours. I chose a purple floral fabic for the first border because it seemed so fresh and then a red for the second border.

The back says: 'Tears are like rain they loosen the soil so we can bloom in different directions.' I stitched them in 926 as well.

I also managed to prepare another couple of blocks. I'm so glad that I went to the trouble of tea-dyeing all of my stitchery fabric before I started because all I had to do was iron-on the next few blocks. (I'm also really glad that I'm using the iron-on transfers.) Took all of 10 minutes. I've also started building up a collection of 'strips' left over from each block so I will be able to use those in my blocks which will make the finishing easier.

Nice People Nice Things blog...

If you visit the Nice People Nice Things blog you can see other people's finished blocks. One person had a really good suggestion, instead of doing the blocks as double-sided like I have, she has used both the stitchery blocks and the 'words' blocks on the front and then used a floral fabric for the back of each block. She has also started sewing her blocks together and it looks really good.

Helen also chooses a 'block of the week' to highlight. I don't do my blocks in that order but tend to be a bit more random.

I'm enjoying this project and I can't wait to see it all together.

Hope and Humour...

I'm reading a book at the moment by Pam Vredevelt called Espresso for a Woman's Spirit - Encouraging Stories of Hope and Humour. This is one of the pieces of humour -

'A couple that had been married for 25years celebrated their 60th birthdays. During the party a fairy appeared and said that because they had been such a loving couple all those years, she would give them one wish each. The wife wanted to travel around the world. The fairy waved her wand and boom! she had tickets in her hand.

Next, it was the husband's turn. He paused for a moment, an then said shyly, "Well, I'd like to be married to a woman 30years younger than I am."

February 04, 2008

This is the front. I used my favourite green reproduction fabric and bordered it with another favourite pink fabric.

This is the back. I did the words in 223. It says "We only find beauty if we carry it in our hearts."

I'm not quite keeping up with doing a block a week. I find that other things get in the way. But, I am well advanced on my next block so don't give up on me yet.

Quilt magazine...

I bought a quilting magazine yesterday (Robin doesn't understand my desire to buy so many) called Quilt. I've never bought it before but I was attracted to the quilt on the front cover. I was quite taken by the magazine. It has quite a few projects and the instructions are easy to understand. They also rate the projects from beginner to advanced so you know what to expect. What I really liked was a section in the magazine called Fabric Stash where they highlight a couple of blocks showing different fabric choices. They also have a website where you can download projects and you can see a library of different quilting blocks. Check it out.

January 28, 2008

This is the front of the block. The flowers are done in purple (3041) and yellow (3852). The writing is in 221. The cat is brown (420) with a pink nose (223). It looks cute doesn't it?

This is the back. It says "Are we really sure the purring is coming from the kitten and not from our very own hearts."

I found the construction was easier this time - probably because I know what I'm doing now. I think it will look nice when it's all finished.

Tennis ...

Now that the Australian Open is over for another year, I won't know what to watch on tv. It was a thrilling tournament with some outstanding performances. I always find it so entertaining and marvel at how fit the players are not to mention how skilful. I managed to get a lot of knitting done while watching it. I find that knitting doesn't require the same concentration as stitching so I don't miss as much tennis. My cardigan is progressing well and I am now half way up one front. Should easily be ready for winter.

January 12, 2008

I've finished my second block from my Nice People Nice Things quilt. This one is called Puppies. This is the back of the block:

The stitching looks purple but I actually used DMC 221 so it should be red!

This is the front of the block with the borders pinned in place:

I think it looks really cute. This is the second week of the year and I'm on schedule. I've already started the next block so hopefully I can keep it up for the rest of the year. I had intended to do some stitching last night but it was too hot. I remember saying that there aren't many evenings here when it's too hot to do anything. Well we are experiencing them at the moment. We seem to reach our maximum temperature at about 5:00pm so it takes a long time to cool down. The best part of the day is the morning but there are too many other things that need doing then.

Australian Open Tennis...

I am looking forward to the Australian Open Tennis starting next week. My favourite player is Roger Federer. He amazes me with his ability and his consistency. Last year one of the best matches I've seen was when he played Andy Roddick in the quarter finals. I felt sorry for Roddick because Federer played flawlessly. I was also pleased to see Serena Williams win. She has so much power that the other women don't seem to be able to counteract her. Hopefully this year's Open will be just as entertaining.

January 08, 2008

This is the back of the block. I'm glad I decided to stitch the words rather than write them because it looks really nice and I know I will appreciate the effort when the quilt is finished.

If you are wondering why the fabric at the back extends beyond the front of the block - when the blocks are sewn together that fabric becomes the sashing/binding. Here it is roughly pinned so you can see what I mean:

I had originally thought that I would sew together blocks as I go, but I think with the number of blocks there are in the quilt that by doing that I could run into a few problems with colour placement so I've decided to wait until I've done at least half the blocks.

When I make quilts I always use the same batting - Matilda's Own Cotton Batting - and as a result I've got lots of bits and pieces which are just perfect for this quilt. Each block requires a 10" square of batting so it gives me a chance to use up those left over bits. This means that the quilt is really scrappy and economical - I haven't bought any fabric, or batting. I've only bought threads.

In the pattern, Helen suggests a way to cut the fat quarters to gain the most out of them. I followed her instructions and the pieces I didn't use in this block I put into labelled plastic bags. I will be able to use those strips in other blocks.

Off to the movies...

It was my birthday the other day and because Aaron was in Fiji (what a life), he's taking me out today to celebrate. We're going to go the movies and have lunch. We've chosen one of those cinemas where you sit in armchairs and are served food while you watch. Sounds decadent.

January 01, 2008

I've finished stitching the first block of my Nice People Nice Things quilt. I chose the 'innocence' block to do first.

As you can see, there's quite a lot of writing to stitch but I found it was okay because the font is quite large and there's no little tiny curves to worry about. I've decided to complete each block as I go, so today I'll choose the fabrics and then put it all together.

Happy New Year...

2008 already? I always set myself some goals at the start of evey year and have to confess that I didn't quite reach all of my goals that I set last year. Sometimes life just gets in the way. I've set myself some new ones for this year so will see if I'm more successful. Wonder what the year will bring?

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